Boring Monday

Jack's date night was this weekend.
he decided on bowling and icecream.
actually Jack will probably always pick bowling.
he really loves bowling.
horrible photos in a dark bowling alley, but proof that sometimes it is just important to record the event and the emotion. technical photography out the window.
and personally i love the jack mid-air.... makes me laugh.proof that date-nights pretty much rock. this smile...
Good weekend.
with the exception of my husband having to work both days.
not for long, but still....
and an annoying email received on friday.
that made me want to write an angry blog post,
but "luckily" sitemeter killed my blog,
and made posting impossible.
so no angry post.
which may have been in the form of a haiku just for kicks.
angry haiku.
hmm.
probably for the better.
the haiku, not the sitemeter. i liked the sitemeter. i was sad to see it go.

and just because
why children should not have cell phones part 2.

"Mom, do you know where my cell phone is?"
"No Colten"
"Mom, really... do you know where my cell phone is?"
"No Colten"
"UGH! JACK do you know where my cell phone is?"
"No"
"JARED! do you know where my cell phone is?"
"Why would i know where your cell phone was?"
"UGH! I'm going BACK outside to look for my cell phone!"
...
repeat a few times a day.
...
repeat several times a week.
...

why does he have a cell phone if it's so annoying you might ask?
you might remember me venting about children and cell phones in previous posts, and then actually getting number one a cell phone.
so the most obvious answer to that question is that i'm a hypocrite.
i do have some valid reasons however.
one being that jared frequently gets left at practice usually so i can get someone else to a practice,
sometimes he gets left with a younger sibling. i feel like if something happened to one of them, the cell is the quickest way for them to let me know.
colten would not have a cell phone, but when we moved here colin got a new cell phone at work, and didn't need two...colten jumped at the opportunity.
I rationalized it with the fact he will be riding the bus this year.
AND because we move so much i don't have "emergency contacts" none. nada. no friends.
so we are it.
and if i need to get a hold of my children, well, a cell phone seems to work best.
it still doesn't make me not think it's an excess that kids don't really need....
and it really doesn't take away from the fact that my kid can not use the darn thing.
but, at the current given moment, it's a necessary evil.
someday when i'm back living in a quaint little town like oskaloosa iowa again.
where everyone knows everyone, and things are simple maybe i'll take them away?!?
nah, that would probably be cruel....

Friday

why children should not have cell phones
part. 1
average conversation with colten who is outside playing:
"hello colten"
"MOM"
"yes colten"
"MOM"
"yes colten"
"MOM"
"COLTEN what?"
"MOM?"
"WHAT!"
"Oh, ...can I get wet?"
"Well, if you come home and get your suit on"
"What?"
"do you know how to use that phone? i said if you COME HOME and get your SUIT on"
"Oh,...why?"
"Colten" (in that don't question me mommy voice)
"well, ....i might already be wet"
"then why did you call to ask?"
"i don't know?!?"
"BYE Cole"
"what?"
....

been scrapbooking my days away...
this is quite obvious when you look at my poor house,
or when jared says to me, "not to be rude, but you REALLY need to do my laundry"
whoopsie.
ok, laundry done.
i've decided my brain works a lot like the mouse's brain in the book
"if you give a mouse a cookie"
yes, sadly i did just compare my brain to that of a mouse.
i tend to jump that quickly from one thing to the next...

(and if you read my blog, well, you know this already)

so one of the prompts from the class i'm taking involved paint,
which is good....
i love paint.
so while the paint was out,
i decided to paint the cd cover for the circle journal essie did for her 40th.
painted a hot crazy mess i did....
then realized I didn't measure the little slot the cd was to go in.
and
it didn't fit.
typical of me.
so i re-did the paint/cd cover...
it's a mess, but i love it
and it goes nicely with the maddness my playlist is.
poor esther's friends,
i was the first to receive the traveling cd case.
i'm sure i've concerned many of them with my taste in music,
but oh well.
it was fun.
i loved it.
and i love my beautiful friend esther.

speaking of circle journals...
i have been in 3.
and i have never gotten any of them back.
which is very sad for me.
so.
if you have mine, email me, and i'll catch you up on my newest address,
because it's an ever changing I know.
I'd just love it, even undone.
and.
because i'm equally as bad about the sending home of cjs.
kirsten.
i have yours.
it's moved a lot now, and it needs to go home to you.
so
please email me your address,
because all these moves later i have lost my mailing sheet.
my eager beaver's mailing sheet.
heehee...i did so love our name.

and because my mouse brain doesn't want to forget these conversations,
i'm including them, for me.
when i go to do errands i like to take one of the little ones with me,
because it's nice to have one on one time with them.
yesterday was Jack.

it's hot out.
"I want to move back to Ohio"
"Compared to this place, Ohio is like heaven...2 times"

Jackman where are you??? are you coming?
"Sorry....I was just off in my own little fantasy world" (my favorite quote of the day)

In the car, out of nowhere.
"I miss the guy at RolyPoly."
"Remember him?"
"He always gave us free cookies"
"Do you remember what I got there?"
(yes, baked potato soup, or a chicken and cheese melt roll-up)
"We went like every day!"
(slight exaggeration Jack)

Grandma and Boppa are sending you a present to open after you get your tonsils out...
that's exciting, huh?
"OH! maybe pudding pops?!?"
Umm...probably not.

I really love that when it's just them, they tell you stories and talk and talk.

we divided up the months that aren't birthday months in our house,
and aren't december ...
luckily that left 6months, and three boys.
they each drew two of the remaining months from a "hat"
and those became their date months.
they get to pick what they want to do,
and go out with just mom and dad.
it's a pretty big deal around here.

if you don't do "date-night" with your kids...
(and with your spouse)
I highly recommend it.

Rewind and Review

So I've been a little preoccupied with Ashley's class (so fabulous), but I wanted to post about our weekend, which was such fun.

Warning: this is a ridiculously loooong post containing nothing really worthwhile to anyone but me.

We decided to surprise the boys and headed to Memphis Friday afternoon...
For a Redbirds game.
It was tons of fun and no one seemed to mind the HEAT (except maybe me)...

It was mini-bat day at the game, making me wonder if the folks in charge of that fun giveaway have children. Mini wooden bats...five of them...no photos of the bat action. Or the bats lined up against the wall after i'd had quite enough of the bats...

jared's face here cracks me up, and coley is giving someone guns....
this one looks like someone photoshopped the redbird in there.... he was riding an ATV and giving everyone five. Colin got us front row seats, which made the boys giddy....coley won the contest for best looks for the camera....jack won most cotton candy eaten....
and why are funnel cakes so good.....?!? jared could have had 20. I managed to have one too, between the mass amounts of liquid i was guzzling....(did i mention it was hot?)
There were fireworks after the game and during the walk back the boys thanked us a dozen times, lots of "that was awesome" "those fireworks were the best" "thank you soo soo much" and even several "i really like funnel cakes" were heard. Makes us happy that the boys appreciate our small efforts at family fun.

We stayed overnight...one plus of having my husband travel, and us move every year is we have accumulated a ton of hotel points, so that was about the only thing affordable about said trip....free is good.swimming is better.
and then we went to check out the Memphis zoo...because the heat index was only 110, and for some reason i was the only one that voted for Elvis's house.....
yes, i really did complain about the HEAT frequently. holy hot weather batman...

"HEY MOM! Come look at this....THIS is interesting. What are they doing?!?"

hmmmm...Interesting is right.
Jared knew what they were doing.
and Colin was mortified that I took photos. What?!? It was funny.....and I personally had never seen ostriches do that....
one other funny story I want to remember:
Colten had apparently never in his entire nine years of existence seen a child "wearing"
a leash. So we're in line at the ballpark getting food, when Colten, who is visibly shocked says "MOM did you SEE THAT? They are treating that kid like a DOG! That is just not right!"... so I explain that some parents use a leash to keep track of their kids... fully expecting that to be the end of that.

The next morning at the hotel. Kid on a leash.

At the zoo.
3 kids on leashes.

By the fourth kid I was hoping coley just wouldn't notice. Of course he did and would just utter in a sort of growl.... "LEASH!!!" and make both Colin and I burst into hysterics.
Poor Coley. He dubbed the kids leashkins, and I know he actually really felt very sorry for them, and no amount of explanation would make it better.

I did tell him I saw a nice backpack/leash combo on one child that I thought he might like to consider for back-to-school....
NOT funny mom.

other happenings today.
i have somehow managed to get stung by a mosquito right between my eyebrows, the boys are just ecstatic about this. cuz it's just "SO funny".
Please Lord tell me that the mosquito stung me while i was sleeping and that I'm really not that oblivious.
sigh.
sadly lately I think I might be....oblivious that is.

Jared and his "girlfriend" broke up. So sad.
No tears were shed, and he's just thrilled to be able to say he "had a girlfriend".
I'm thrilled that the MASS texting has ceased.
Colin at one point said that if the Spartans had as many men as Jared had text messages in one day they'd have won.
yeah they would have.

of course as we were basking in the breakup....
realizing that God was just giving us a little warm up to what the future holds....
chuckling about the whole "girlfriend" situation.

Colten proudly announces over dinner last night that Skyler (our neighbor girl) is his girlfriend.
All I could think was thank God he doesn't have texting.
sigh.

Happy Jack

Jack has decided that baths make all things better.
Actually I completely agree with this discovery, however I am trying to convince him that he can not live in the tubby...
the nasty fever is GONE though,
so we are doing a little happy dance at our house today.
a happy squeaky clean dance....

Sorry We Can't Play

Jack says that having a temperature of 103 for three days sucks.
The End.

The one in which I ever so slightly VENT about my teenager....

Babyhood was so physically exhausting, always being "on" while also being completely sleep deprived. Having little whirling dervishes, not at all concerned about personal safety.
I remember it well.
My best friend from high school and I often talk about how physically challenging babies are, but how emotionally challenging "big" kids are.

As of yesterday I have in fact decided I'd like to be sleep deprived instead of having to deal with "girlfriends".

The only reason I'm even remotely allowing Jared-who-has-momentarily-lost-his-ever-loving-mind to refer to this girl as his "girlfriend" is
1. I don't want him to not tell me when he has a real girlfriend (when he's 18),
2. he CAN'T DRIVE.
3. she lives a town over.
and
4. he has known her for FOUR days.

Boys apparently lose ALL sense when it comes to girls, I knew this, but I've never had to deal with it in regards to my CHILD.
I kinda want to smack him upside the head and yell "HELLLLLOOOOOOOOOO?!?!".
but I'm not sure that would be mature, or helpful at this point.

SO, instead I will just mention several times that you can't know someone after four days.
That actually dating someone is out of the question (in this family) when you're in 8th grade.
And I'll remind him several more times that his mom, dad, 2 aunts AND 2 uncles are all on facebook with him.
duh!?

and I will also continue to call him Romeo, and Rico Suave,
in the hope that he comes to his senses.
Before I lose mine.
Don't you wish I were your mother?
NOT.
No more vacation bible school for THAT one.
Oh dear.
Definitely on restriction.

Hmm....

Do you think people really use the scrubbing bubbles shower cleaner as body wash?
Made me giggle....

m*e*

1. Erika Cushnie, 2. Vegetarian Tacos even meat-eaters will love!, 3. PARK HIGH SCHOOL IN RACINE WISCONSIN, 4. With or without you, 5. David Beckham, 6. Rhubarb "Tea", 7. Blue degradée, 8. chocolate covered strawberry, 9. mom's" happy kitchen, 10. lucky number four, 11. Balloons at the Fair, 12. Orange E

i saw this on a couple other blogs,
and thought it looked like a fun way to make monday more appealing...

so, what you do is answer these questions,
1. What is your first name? erika
2. What is your favorite food? mexican food
3. What high school did you go to? park high school
4. What is your favorite color? red
5. Who is your celebrity crush? beckham
(notice his head got cut off in the mosaic, notice i don't seem to mind....)
6. Favorite drink? ice tea
7. Dream vacation? hawaii
8. Favorite dessert? chocolate covered strawberries
9. What did you want to be when you grew up? a mom
10. What do you love most in life? my four (boys)
11. One Word to describe you? happy
12. Your flickr name. i didn't get anything with my flickr name, so i used *e*, which is my nickname and username everywhere else.

then you,
type your answer to each of the questions into flickr search...
pick an image...
and copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

and you get a happy little snippet of YOU.
fun.
although i warn you...
if you're like me, you'll get lost for a bit too long drooling over photos at flickr.

All Fall Down

it should be noted that no tears were shed over the horrifically bad haircuts....
we have laughed a lot,
and made a few jokes.
i'm lucky my kid has a sense of humor.
and the haircut chick is lucky i have one.

jared is a bit ticked off, not that i blame him....
it really is amazing that i can take him to a salon that was recommended,
with a photo of himself with the haircut he wanted,
(this photo) and have it end up completely different...
i'm going to start cutting his hair.
really, this is the third time he's gotten the same bad haircut.
i mean, i cut the middle's hair all the time.
(grant it, not a difficult cut)but i manage to not screw it up....
i don't say, "oooh, you wanted a mohawk, yeah, i kind of gave you a buzz cut, sorry about that"

now...
had i known that all it would take to get lurkers to come out and say hi,
was to post my kids with bad hair..
i'd have done that a long time ago.
in fact,
if it will make you comment again,
i can post a photo of jack with his new bad haircut.
yes,
it was in fact a duel-bad-haircut-experience,
and both jared and jack now have some growing out to do.

I actually don't even need to post a photo of jack.
just use this as an example.....
he however does not have a blue hat.

"BANGS?!? I have bangs now?!?! I hate bangs!"- Jack

i do have to say that once jared got over being mortified that i posted a photo of him
with the bad hair on the blog,
he was sort of tickled that a college soccer star commented, and said nice things about him...
so thanks for that stephanie.

thank you ALL for your sweet comments.

ok, enough about hair, it's so boring.

how about dominoes,
theres an exciting topic....

story:
jack was lining up the dominoes the other day,
to knock over...
and they looked pretty,
so i took photos.

that is not really the whole story....
when i was done taking photos,
and watching them fall down,
i asked jack if he wanted to play dominoes with me.

"What??? Play dominoes? What do you mean?"
"You know, play the game dominoes"
"There is a GAME dominoes?!?"

yeah,
i then realized he had no idea that dominoes was a game.
just a cool toy to line up in different patterns and knock down.
great.
yeah, we had a lesson in domino 101.
all better.
thanks.

ETA:
umm, lora you should TOTALLY start a blog. i just wrote an entire post about hair and dominoes, i'm pretty sure you can beat THAT.

Uh-Oh

Someone HATES their new haircut.
it will grow out son, it will grow out...

Document 2.

Ok, so it's only one boy,
and the tongue is blue from popsicle and not kool-aid,
but he's sweaty.
(because it's 9,000 degrees here)
and cute.
(because he's the jackman)
so i'm counting it.

question. (as said like dwight)
am i the only one that watches jon and kate plus eight,
and wants MORE kids?
like 5 more...
?!?
is it not suppose to work the other way... ?!?
kind of like birth control on tv?
yeah, not so much for me.
i watch cheaper by the dozen,
and decide i actually want 12 kids.
or maybe 6....
i think perhaps colin is going to ban such shows/movies from our house.

I'm just sayin'

This dessert is really good.
like lick the bowl good.
I wanted something "light" for the fourth...as in not a cake, not baked, not too heavy...
and thought that the yogurt cream might just be perfect,
but i wasn't sure it would be well received by the boy creatures living here...
so i had x-tra cream as a backup, to make whipped cream,
but the boys LOVED it.
so.
i recommend it.
plus,
i did strawberries and blueberries because i wanted red-white-and-blue,
because i'm a dork like that.
no photos
because all berries and cream were eaten in record time.
oh, and i only used 1/2c. of the brown sugar....thus making it "light", right?!? ;)
yeah, i think so.
ok.
my dryer is broken.
which SUCKS when you are a family of five that likes to wear underwear....
so i'm off to hang up more laundry to dry until the repairman arrives.

Tie Dye...

is a super fun and easy summer activity....
the boys made theirs red-white-and-blue for yesterdays festivities,
but are already asking to make more "with different colors"
just thought i would suggest it...
relatively inexpensive, and fun....

Happy Fourth of July

my boys grew up in Fayetteville, NC.
and every year we celebrated the fourth at Fort Bragg.
(when we moved my kids were shocked that every 4th didn't include paratroopers, guns, a thank you to our troops, live music, cannons and a crazy amazing fireworks show.)
but really what living there taught us was to truly appreciate how blessed we are to live here, and how lucky we are to enjoy the freedoms we do as Americans.
our soldiers are amazing.
we love our troops, and we are so thankful for what they do for us.
living in Fayetteville opened my eyes wide to what military wives and families go through.
how much they sacrifice and how strong they are.
my friend's husbands have been deployed over and over and over again.....
it's crazy.
when you see a military family, you should thank them all.
and keep them all in your prayers.

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Aunt Gabby!!!

We hope that you are having a wonderful day that includes....
cake with lots of frosting,
pressies from your boys,
lots of kisses and hugging,
and being spoiled,
something yummy for dinner,
and a big-long-nap-from the smallest of your boys....

We wish we could be there to celebrate with you...
and go to the beach,
and get trashy magazines....
and
shrimp boats and crabby cakes,
and
key lime pie with raspberry sauce...
i am thinking that sounds like a MUST do for next summer...
and Ev will be old enough to party with the big kids.
so, plan on it. we will PARTY!

in the meantime... know that you are SO loved by me, and LOTS of boys.
three of which that will be drinking kool aid in wine glasses and toasting in your honor today.
ENJOY YOUR day!
happy happy birthday sis!!! we love you.

I spy with my little eye a stupid TV hole...

so the eyeball gummies were fun too....less exciting, but what we've been up to.
this weekend we switched the little boys room around ...
because moving every year isn't enough fun.....not so much because of the purple-ness of the first room, but because of this 100 ton piece of annoyance....it doesn't look like it weighs a lot, but oooooh does it ever.
anyway, for me, i have found that it helps to live in a house for awhile before i get a good feel for where things should be.
(part of the reason nothing is hung up yet)
and with this house i didn't even have that window of "set-the-house-up-in-your-head-before-you-close"...
because i saw the house for the first time the day we moved in.
my husband picked it out, because the boys and i were still living in ohio.
he did a really good job, with just a few exceptions.
one being the stupid tv hole.
you know the one over the fireplace...
the one i've never fully understood, nor enjoyed the look of...
that tv hole.
well, we have one. hate it. and to make it even better..our current tv doesn't fit in the tv hole.
go figure.
so,
until we get a new tv, we have an empty stupid freaking tv hole in the living room.
(i'm trying not to let this annoy me)
we had the tv in the green room above,
but then i decided it would be better in the purple room,
and so we switched it up.
and now, the boys room seems bigger, even though the room is smaller.
will wonders never cease.
and we found a new use for the tv hole in the process.
awesome.
my husband is funny.

Love from Germany pt. 2

LOTS of excitement at the treehouse on this rainy Saturday....
a box of love arrived all the way from GERMANY!
and I promised essie reaction shots from coley-oley-o.....
so, here goes...

Here is the "OOOO...beer gummies?!?" reaction.....

and the reaction we were all waiting for.....
look Coley figured out what the next gummies were shaped like...
and that is pretty hysterical when you're a nine year old boy... what kind of gummies could make my kids so giddy? and laugh so much?
PENIS gummies of course!
Very very funny the penI-gummI, or is it ...penis-gummis?
Yeah, it was a very happy discovery, and has fueled the boys desire to move to Germany next....
kiddie beer flavored gummies,
penis gummies,
Bayern Munchen gummies.....
(notice Coley was wearing a liverpool jersey, whilst eating bayern munchen gummies?!.....BUT we have a bayern munchen shirt, i swear it)
wine gummies for the momma,
and some crazy cool eyeballs... good stuff. oh and look, Jared was there too.....making this face every time I turned the camera his direction...isn't he cute?!
"HI PRESTON!" from the Jared btw....
So we our sending lots of love, hugs and thankyous to the Germany fun-house.
We wish wish wish that plans hadn't changed and we'd ended up neighbors in Deutschland. CRAZY mad beer drinking, brat and pretzel eating fun would have been had....
give us a few years, we are working on it.
In the meantime,
I am in LOVE with your 40th-birthday-CD-circle-journal.
Can't wait.
Although you should be very afraid of what I may put on a CD...
have you heard my playlist on the blog?
HELLO?! REM, Barlow Girl, DMB, Korn, Jewel and the Cure...
I don't really understand it myself...
Anyway,
I hope you eventually get on a plane, and avoid more pre-dawn wake up calls....
next year lets consider Hawaii though...
just a thought.
Travel safe, and call me from Gaia's house...
The treehouse LOVES you guys.

hmm....

not sure about any of this...
still tweeking the blog.
added some custom thing, and it made everything CRAZY!
so try and ignore until I figure it all out.....

KoolAid Banners of Joy

it's HOT and we miss this there, i said it....we miss Solon.
pigs have officially taken flight.

also.
pink lemonade kool-aid does not leave a moustache...so in an attempt to get a photo of sweaty dirty kool-aid moustached boy faces
instead of just sweaty dirty boy faces....
i will wait for cherry, or tropical punch kool-aid day.
they only get kool-aid in the summer. because of the amount of fluid they drink....
and the cost of juice.
it's a bad thing, but it's something they look forward to.
kool-aid = kiddie crack.
that's all i'm saying.
i was getting some the other day with coley...
who remarked "wow, you're getting a LOT of kool-aid"
(10 packets)
i said "well, it's 10 for a dollar"
WOW replied the middleman...."THAT is a GREAT deal"
yes, an excellent deal for artificially flavored, and colored what is it Col? citric acid? nastiness...
Liquid gold when you're little.

ok, on an unrelated note.
how does one make a blog banner? I've been so lucky to have Hanni and then Nisa make me mine....and now it's been over a year, and I'd like a new one...
and surely it must be within my abilities...?!?
although, maybe not...
maybe not wouldn't surprise me in the least.
email me if you have any knowledge of such things....
i'd love you forever.